Italian restaurant coming to Seven Bridges

Clara's Pasta moving to long-vacant Krispy Kreme site

The former Krispy Kreme building in the Seven Bridges mall area will become an Italian restaurant (Joseph Ruzich, Chicago Tribune)

An Italian restaurant in Woodridge will be moving into the former Krispy Kreme Doughnuts building in the Main Street at Seven Bridges mall area.

Rudy Melchiorre, owner of Clara's Pasta, 6740 S. Illinois Route 53, will invest $2 million into the vacant Krispy Kreme building. That will include constructing a 2,500-square-foot addition.

At the Jan. 24 village board meeting, trustees approved the final development plan, which also calls for adding 40 to 50 seats and building a patio. The Krispy Kreme building, near Route 53 and Seven Bridges Drive, has been vacant for several years and had been considered an eyesore by many who visit the otherwise bustling mall.

"We're really excited. We've been in Woodridge for 25 years, and we wanted to relocate to a better location for about 24½ years," said Melchiorre, laughing.

Melchiorre said the current site in a strip mall is hard to see from the road. The new site is right on Route 53 and next to the Seven Bridges movie theater and a popular health club.

"We're hoping patrons from the theater and the health club will come to the restaurant," said Melchiorre. "It's a much better location."

He said construction would begin soon and take about 16 weeks.

Melchiorre said he had considered building a new restaurant on an empty lot next to the current location but backed away after finding the Krispy Kreme building.

Melchiorre said his mother, Clara, opened the restaurant with her husband, Rudolph, after a Japanese restaurant closed at the current location in the late 1980s. He said his grandparents also ran an Italian restaurant for 40 years near Kedzie Avenue and Polk Street on the West Side of Chicago.

"It's the same concept," said Melchiorre. "We're a neighborhood joint with good family-style Italian food."

He said the most popular foods are fish and pasta dishes.

Construction of the Seven Bridges development near Hobson Road and Route 53 began in the mid-1980s. Main Street at Seven Bridges is part of a larger 400-acre development that includes single-family homes, multifamily homes, a golf course, an 18-screen theater, an ice arena and a fitness center, among other stores and businesses.

In September, the village announced that a private company would begin a marketing campaign to bring more businesses to the Seven Bridges development. Several new restaurants and businesses, including a yogurt shop and a mortgage company, have already opened.